Wednesday, April 25. 2007

Moving sucks but when my mind is clear, I must follow the direction I feel. The twin shorties were 9 when I started this, now they are 11. Living an hour away was beneficial financially as I was close to Hollywood and Hollywood is full of people that love to rock. As one that connects those that rock with those that bask in their rockness, Hollywood is an open slate of opportunity where pretty much whenever I am willing to stay up late in the world of loud, I can drive home avoiding drunks with some money in the mail. That was then and this is now and now I am a bit more free to be more creative in my endeavors and less geographically limited.

Current supplies:

1- Australian tent, don't know what they are called but they are canvas, rectangular and for camping in the rugged outback (hey, a little help from my Aussie friends on what they call these things?). I brought it home and it already is coming in handy though I wont "tent it and will just use it as a mattress.

2- Jesus candles I bought at the liquor store for illumination. That's his gig, may as well put him to work.

2- Bottles of wine that I found in the house unopened, one bottle is still unopened.

1- Liter of Fiji water, room temp. Also from the liquor store, I had them grab a room temp bottle from the back, cold water is just too discomforting to enjoy drinking, except as a shock while in overheat mode.

1- Of the shortie's sleeping bags and a pillow borrowed from the shorties' mom, thank you!

1- iPod Shuffle. Yes, I do feel a distaste for them and Mac and Apple as well as everything else that pretends to be nice while secretly trying rope me in, but the music on it is magic and makes my heart hurt but in a touching happy way and I have not taken the time to bypass Mac's annoying attempt at blocking me from taking the music off it. I kind of like the idea that the tunes are captured in a tangible entity, old school style like before all this ripping happened and I also like the reminder when I charge the iPod shuffle by plugging it into my computer that Mac's iFucked software tries to erase it and I kind of enjoy my often frivolous battles against the things with which I disagree. As in "I can't stop mosquito's from biting but I can put up a mosquito net and move on as they struggle in trying to feed upon me."

1 - Pair of old, like 15 years, little plastic stereo battery powered Sony speakers that I recently repaired that were my 'hotel room stereo' from back in the early 90's when cassette tape Sony Walkman's were the thing to have. I didn't hate Walkmans but also they did tiny policemen injected into their electronics. And no, I don't hate cops and in the words of Barfly, "I just feel better when they are not around," especially inside something I purchase. Oh, so I do a search on the little speaker's model #, SRS-57 and whoa look at this: http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/13/5/637 . Which I found quite interesting not only in the use the speakers but also in that these female birds apparently call out to their dudes to get them food and the neighboring male birds eavesdrop. Turns out that if the birdy boyfriend/hubby does not bring her enough food, she will keep calling out and nearby single male birds listen in and pop on over for a conjugal visit and the chicky birds have a go with the neighbor. Uh oh, I have this overwhelming desire to head off to the grocery store to stock the fridge with lots and lots of food and then open all the windows and listen really carefully.

1- Mini travel pack with all the stuff I would bring if I was doing a trip to San Francisco for an overnight and a gig.

1- Me. My own humanly self and as I lay here I realize that I have already mentally acclimated to my new home yet it will be three weeks or so before I can actually entirely move. I feel more comfortable here camping in a powerless house than I did walking back into full familiarity. And I realize that last night my displaced feeling was less about tour ending and more of being in the construction phases of a new home world beginning.

And speaking of beginning, here is me in the earlier beginnings of my humanly life with my pop teaching me to ski

Roller coaster. Right now I am sitting in the seat of the roller coaster of decisions I made and beyond the point of turning back, and must feel the string/sting of outcomes unfolding. Scary, fun, fast, nauseating, and everything in between. Parts I love and parts I hate but hey, I made the choices, no complaints and just because I chose to do it does not mean it will be easy. Roller coaster. Surrounded by so many people and more alone than ever, roller coaster. Re-acclimation to being home. And now that I think about it. Sitting in a seat, whether in a living room stationary or on a freeway going 60, it's all good. But introduce an abrupt transition and everything changes. Try launching a couch potato with a catapult or putting a halt to a freeway driver with a brick wall and all of a sudden that seat sitting takes on a whole new dimension. Perhaps that sheds light on the underlying trauma experienced when transitioning between the high speed motion of tour and the grounded base of being home.

Roller coaster: all depends if you are the sort of person to laugh and wave your arms above your head or scream and hold on for dear life... either way you'll get to the end, so try waving your arms around :- )

"Scary, fun, fast, nauseating"
I can't think of a better way to describe my life right now, (changing coasts, jobs, life). Its always nice to be reminded that there are fellow passengers on the rollercoaster!
Anyhow, your blogs on the roadie experience brighten my day! Thank you and keep it up!
-e

The rollercoaster, you have no control over it all, you know it has to go up and down and round and round, "do you feel sick yet" but there is always an end, that is if the controller man decides to stop it. But you know you have the remote control this time and the last say,,, so up up and away, take in all that you need, grow, be merry and most important of all my dear friend is remember to laughand smile.
Love that pic of you with your dad, so this is where your love for snowboarding comes from..
Anyway take it easy

It really depends on the rollercoaster I am on and whether it is in control like an amusement park version or like a run away Semi truck on a mountain road. One I know the ending and the other I do not. But I guess either way if I have no control over the outcome it's all about arm waving.

Well, first of all just because I dislike Apple it does not mean I like Microsoft. I dislike the business model that Apple uses to trap and sap it's users. I also dislike the dumbed down limited nature of their products though I respect that "easy to use" has its place. it is just not for me. I like full control and many choices.
Currently I am using a Fujitsu notebook and it has this super cool fingerpring recognition that allows me to use my finger print rather than remember passwords. It is small, relatively inexpexsive, fast and reliable. Plus when I loose the power supply, as I occasionally do, I can plug in several of the old ones I have lying around from previous laptops. Unlike Apple and Sony and a few other companies that make "special power conectors so you have to buy their over inflated replacements.

The odds are against me finding Apple love. Keep in mind that I was never satified with home stereos as they were way too limited so I started in on the pro PA system world. I am more of an upstream swimmer and Apple only provides swiming in one direction. Oh, also know that I use the G4 Mac for pro tools recording of the rock shows and have a Mac Book Pro as well. And yes, there are a few things that are really nice about the Macs, but the PC is more my deal.

What a wonderful post Dave.
Your roller coaster analogy summed up my feelings about going on tour as well. I am new to the tour scene, as my band and I are just beginning to journey down the West Coast. My first experience on the road proved frightening and exilerating at the same time. Your blog makes me excited for the future of music and increases my faith in humanity.

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